Catch up on today's top analyst initiations with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Southern Copper (SCCO) initiated with a Buy at Goldman Sachs. 2. Arcturus Therapeutics (ARCT) initiated with a Buy at Laidlaw. 3. HEXO Corp (HEXO) initiated with an Outperform at Oppenheimer. 4. Group 1 Automotive (GPI) and Lithia Motors (LAD) were initiated with an Overweight at JPMorgan, while Penske Automotive (PAG) and Asbury Automotive (ABG) were initiated with a Neutral, and Sonic Automotive (SAH) and AutoNation (AN) were initiated with an Underweight at JPMorgan. This list is just a portion of The Fly's analyst coverage. To see The Fly's full Street Research coverage, click here.

Notable companies reporting before tomorrow's open, with earnings consensus, include Exxon Mobil (XOM), consensus $2.20... Chevron (CVX), consensus $2.87... AbbVie (ABBV), consensus $2.23... HCA Healthcare (HCA), consensus $5.01... Colgate-Palmolive (CL), consensus 81c... Charter (CHTR), consensus $7.92... AutoNation (AN), consensus $4.27.

Sonic Automotive is up 11.4%, or $5.80 to $56.92.

Craig-Hallum lowered the firm's price target on Lithia & Driveway to $310 from $350 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. While Q1 results were negatively impacted by operational integrations of recent acquisitions, the firm was encouraged to hear management's refined focus going forward is on harvesting synergies and accelerating its share repurchases while moderating the aggressive M&A pace. Network expansion and M&A have proven to be highly strategic, synergistic and accretive, so Craig-Hallum is supportive of the strategy, but thinks the setup for the stock is better during the synergy optimization period than during the acquisition/integration period.

Reports Q1 revenue $4.2B, consensus $4.26B....Reports Q1 operating margin of 6.3%... "We delivered a strong first quarter, crossing over $4 billion in revenue for the first time in our company's history," said David Hult, Asbury's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our performance was driven by the hard work of our team members, our focus on the same store operations and the strength and strategic fit of our acquisitions - we are accelerating the results of our integration efforts. We delivered on our ongoing commitment to profitably grow same store preowned volume by retailing over 2,700 more units sequentially, even in a tight inventory market, and new vehicle profits performed well against brand mix driven volume challenges. As we anticipated, margins continue their return to a more normalized level. Our results demonstrate how our strategic investments have enabled us to deliver strong results despite challenging market conditions. The strong performance of our business enabled us to repurchase 240,000 shares in the quarter as part of our capital allocation approach within our multi-year growth strategy."

Reports Q1 revenue $8.56B, consensus $8.54B. New vehicle same store units grew by 3.6 %. Reports Q1 total vehicle gross profit per unit of $4,346, down $1,239. "In the first quarter, our teams responded as the industry continued to normalize inventories and profitability. We are committed to driving improvements across our business," said Bryan DeBoer, President and CEO. "Our model is diversified with our adjacencies maturing and on a path to profitability, as we continue to deliver the best experience for our customers. Responding to market conditions, we are rebalancing our capital allocation from acquisitions toward returns to our shareholders, with the long-term target of delivering $2 in EPS per billion in revenues."

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.  1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Get caught up quickly on the top news and calls moving stocks with these five Top Five lists.  1... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Lithia Motors is readying to cut hundreds of positions following a collapse in the supply of used vehicles after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Financial Times' Peter Campbell reports, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Lithia, which acquired Pendragon dealerships and its used car marketplace CarStore this year, plans to shutter CarStore and cut about 250 jobs across the UK. Reference Link